Buying a gaming monitor shouldn’t be a shot in the dark. Don’t grab the shiniest one on the shelf or the most expensive one your wallet allows. Your PC and your favorite games are secret ingredients that make for a perfect monitor pairing. A sloppy pairing? Bottlenecks in performance and lost potential is what you’re dealing with. This guide spells out the series of events that lead one to a proper gaming monitor truly optimized forhisorherunique setup.
Why It’s Important to Match Monitor With PC Setup
Is your super-charged CPU and GPU all that matter? Think again. Your monitor could be the Houdini of your gaming rig. All those glorious frames your GPU churned out? Worthless if your screen cannot keep up with the burst of visuals.
Never should your monitor gather dust! Muscle versus might- custom PC and monitor. Your computer can never flex its graphical capabilities, meaning that display will fancy being an expensive paperweight. Awaken your PC; when harmony is established between them, it is the correct assertion to be made that the visuals will truly pop.
A monitor should be considered a gatekeeper. Your GPU may be producing 240 beautiful frames per second in your favorite game, but the monitor, which can only provide 60Hz refresh, only displays half of the action-60 frames. If your video card is barely spending air, trying to scrape together even 60 FPS at a pretty conventional 1080p resolution, you can kiss playing smoothly on a 2K or 4K display goodbye. It’ll be slow-motion from here on out.
Before diving headfirst into fresh AAA titles, make sure your PC is a performance powerhouse able to doling out buttery-smooth frame rates at the resolution of your choice. Only then may you look for a monitor worthy of the occasion-to perfectly sync with your PC’s output, presenting a visual treat equally delightful as the gameplay.
Match the Monitor Refresh Rate to Your GPU’s FPS Output
Nothing could be more infuriating for gamers than ugly screen tears. A gamer could unwittingly be throttling down his or her PC. This occurs when the frame rate generated by the video game is not synchronized with the refresh rate of the monitor.
Imagine an awesome PC that blasts away high FPS. But if the monitor is a country road (low refresh rate) this power is wasted. Go for the synergy between system and monitor. If your rig is pushing out 120 or even 240 FPS, a monitor with a refresh rate of 144 Hz or 240 Hz respectively should be bought.
When you ignore this necessary balance, your gaming PC will cram through frame generation in excess, stuff the screens with frames that simply can’t be displayed; screen tearing would then follow, while V-sync or G-sync would slow things down at least somewhat. In other words, you’ve got all this horsepower in your PC that is going to waste. Sync frame rate with refresh rate for a smooth gaming experience with sweet visuals.
Curious if your PC can handle the latest games? Open the power of PCGameBenchmark! Simply enter your CPU, GPU, and RAM into the panel to the right, then click on “What Games Can My PC Run” to view FPS estimates and gaming possibilities.
Is hunting for performance clues giving you a headache? Once you’ve keyed in the title of your game using the search bar above, head to the game’s page and zoom in on the frame rate bar graph section. These revealing graphs break down CPU, GPU, and RAM performance, showing you right away if your hardware is really flexing its power or barely keeping up with the game’s demands.
The CPU and GPU wise performance hit a peak of 150%, fasten your seat belts then! From here, buttery smooth gameplay of 100-150 FPS is pretty much assured. Don’t leave the machine wooing in power. Equip it with a monitor that has a matching refresh rate. Let there be so visual extravaganza!
Find the Right Balance Between Screen Resolution and GPU Power
The higher the resolution, the more pressure is put on the GPU. Every pixel needs attention on that screen, and with a higher resolution, that means millions more tiny squares that have to be painted by the GPU, turning your graphics card into a digital beast.
Thinking of upgrading your monitor resolution? Well, hold on for a sec! Sure, a 2K or 4K monitor will give you spectacle-worthy visuals, but expect a hit in performance. Original smooth gameplay in 1080p would, however, judder in 1440p a little under pressure. This is because the GPU is now pushing so many more pixels. Therefore, expect about a 15 to 30 percent drop in performance when transitioning from 1080p to 1440p. The higher the resolution, the more serious the fall-off in performance. Your graphics card will be pleading for mercy!
Your dream is to game at glorious 4K or beyond, really? Don’t just be content with passing frame rates at 1080p; fly higher! Your GPU must be massively powerful; think at least 40-70%moreperformance than what’s merely acceptable at 1920×1080. Before you get any hopes up, confirm if that graphics card canhandlesuch extreme high resolutions. Check out the manual; it is your pixel cheat sheet.
Choose the Right Panel Technology
Your gaming monitor’s panel technology is the heart of the gaming experience beyond resolution and refresh rate. Would you wish to explore breathtaking worlds with vivid details? Or would you rather wield your lightning reflexes in the esports arena? Panel types serve as your secret weapon that subtly influences every victory and visual masterpiece; hence make the right choice.
There are four panel types to consider for gaming:
Image source: Unsplash
IPS panels are the chameleons of the monitor realm. They give wonderful colors and contrast and great response times. Want a jack-of-all-trades display that handles gaming, graphic design, and movie nights all with equal aplomb? Just go with an IPS. It is the Goldilocks of display technology – not too slow, not too dull, but just right.
Say goodbye to pale colors and welcome deep, inky blacks! Such contrast made by Va panels are breathtakingly cheap, enthralling the gamer into the idea of ambience without the cost. Not the fastest nor the most accurate colors, in any case, Va panels bring the punch and a captivating experience that is easy on-the-pocket.
OLED: Prepare to be spoiled by your eyes. Infinite contrasts, true blacks that seize light, and colors bursting into a myriad of hues of their own-all with an almost instant response. So, obviously, OLED monitors sit atop the throne-with gaming, that is. But it comes at a price-while rare, a HUD can eventually get etched onto the display. So if you want that image-level of nirvana and can pay for it and be wary of burn-in, then OLED is your go-to.
Your budget and gaming preferences dictate your panel destiny. Choose wisely.
Aspect Ratio’s Impact on PC Performance
Gaming monitors: An aspect ratio battle! The classic 16:9 has worked long and hard to give viewers a familiar balance. But once you step into the ultrawide arena, a 21:9 display is all about panoramic immersion. The ultrawide gulf is opening up, becoming bigger-and-wider, and it is turning lush, sprawling landscape views that help you see into the tiny detail and win. Standard or ultrawide, the choice shapes your virtual world.
Image source: Pexels
Should a tunnel view remain fixed in your favorite game, an ultrawide monitor will reveal panoramic glory, never before shown. However, heed this warning: the panoramically enlarged view comes at a cost. More pixels demand more horsepower from your GPU. A performance hit could come as the GPU struggles to paint this breathtakingly wide picture.
Ultrawide: gorgeous looks, but what about the price? A 3440×1440 ultrawide monitor has about 34% more pixels than a customary 2560×1440 monitor. You know what that means: really amazing visuals! But with such power to render all those pixels comes a penalty for performance. Your frames per second should go down by at least 15 to 25 percent. That means smooth ultrawide immersion or ultrawide immersion without smoothness! You must ask yourself.
Never should a monitor be the weakest link in the PC setup or a costly overkill. Giving this decision between curved or flat screen is just one more exciting choice for a display in addition to computer specs we’ve so far, had to consider.
Image credit: Flickr. All screenshots by Karrar Haider.
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